As someone who grew up playing NBA arcade games such as NBA in the Zone, NBA Jam, NBA Street, and various others, it has been a bit frustrating that we haven’t seen anything similar appear in the past few years. Sure, there were NBA Playgrounds, but I wasn’t really feeling it. However, recently, it has been revealed that Raw Thrills and Play Mechanix have revealed an Arcade called NBA Superstars.
The company has released a teaser trailer for its upcoming title, and I’ll be honest, it looks like fun. NBA Superstars will be a 3 vs. 3 game sponsored by the NBA and will feature 120 players and 30 teams. Still, I don’t expect to see any old players, such as Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, or Shaq, but one can pray they’ll show up as secret characters.
It looks like Raw Thrills is targeting the NBA Jam crowd, and that makes sense. It has even hired Tim Kitzrow, the voice of NBA Jam. That’s a good move on Raw Thrills’ part.
The downside? This is strictly an arcade game. You’ll have to go to your local arcade, Dave and Busters, Round 1, or whatever is in your neck of the woods. However, this arcade machine looks freaking amazing. Per Raw Thrills, it will feature an animated LED stadium scoreboard that sits on top of the arcade cabinet and will display the score, messages, and other things, as well as a 75-inch display, camera flash-simulating marquee lights, team color-coordinated RGB LEDs and four dynamic player positions. That latter is odd since it is a 3 vs. 3 game, so why four slots?
I hope my local Dave and Busters and Round 1 get this game when it releases this Summer, 2024. For you NBA fans, it may be worth checking out. I know I will be.
